Social Security Fairness Act of 2023
Floor Speech
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Ms. SPANBERGER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as the Representative for tens of thousands of Virginians whose earned retirement benefits have been slashed by the windfall elimination provision and the government pension offset for far, far too long.
I urge my colleagues, 330 of whom have cosponsored this legislation, to join us in passing the Social Security Fairness Act this evening and put an end to this theft.
For generations, hardworking Americans have been promised that if they work hard, save, and contribute to their Social Security, they will be afforded a secure retirement with their earned benefits.
The WEP and the GPO, two misguided provisions that were added to the Social Security Act in 1983, have denied Americans the retirement security they worked for and expected to receive.
Today, the WEP steals benefits from more than 2 million retired Americans, more than 45,000 Virginians, who both paid into Social Security for long enough to earn these benefits and worked in the public sector during their careers. These are firefighters who worked a second job to make ends meet, police officers who began a second career after leaving the force, and teachers who took a summer job to cover the bills and buy school supplies. They are Federal employees who went on to work in the private sector. They are all receiving a fraction of their earned Social Security benefits.
The GPO denies benefits to more than 750,000 Americans and nearly 8,000 Virginians, people who dedicated their careers to public service who were then robbed of the survivor benefits that they should have received while dealing with the death of a spouse. These Americans have been punished simply because they chose to selflessly serve our communities and our country.
Mr. Speaker, I have heard from thousands of Virginians about this issue. Francis, a retired police officer in Virginia, is seeing his benefits slashed by the WEP. Richard, a veteran who served our Nation first in the military, then in civil service, and then in the private sector, sees nearly half of his Social Security benefits stolen. That has been the case for the past 15 years, even though he started working when he was 16 years old and started paying into Social Security.
For more than 40 years, public servants have tirelessly implored their Representatives in Congress to listen to their stories and to correct this glaring injustice. Today, for the first time, Congress will vote on the Social Security Fairness Act, to repeal the WEP and the GPO, and to finally put an end to this theft.
Let me be very clear. The long-term solvency of Social Security is an issue that Congress must address, and the issue of how much those earned benefits pay to those who are in their retirement is something that must be addressed, but that is a separate issue.
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Ms. SPANBERGER. Mr. Speaker, that is a separate issue from allowing Americans who did their part, who contributed their earnings, for them to retire with dignity.
In signing their names onto this legislation, more than 330 lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans, have made clear their belief that we must repeal the WEP and GPO. We must pass it tonight.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join us in passing this legislation and in sending it over to the United States Senate, where 61 Senators who are currently serving in that body are cosponsors of our legislation. By passing the Social Security Fairness Act, we can deliver long-overdue relief to the American public, to our public servants, to those who have served our communities.
I thank everyone who will speak on behalf of this bill this evening. I thank my cosponsor, Congressman Garret Graves, for his extraordinary partnership as we have worked with public servants from around the country to get to this point tonight.
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